John Barakat joined M&G Investments in September 2008 as Head of Real Estate Finance to begin M&G’s direct lending activity in European commercial real estate. Since that time, John has been responsible for approximately £10 billion of investments in this sector on behalf of 70+ institutional investors, including Prudential Assurance Company, and has built a team of 21 professionals.
Throughout his 30+ year career, John has been involved in all aspects of real estate including lending, investment, securitisation, loan restructuring and workout, bankruptcy and reorganisation, leasing, mergers and acquisitions and sales.
Prior to joining M&G, John spent 17 years at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he became a managing director in 1997. His final position at Goldman was as head of the Commercial Property Finance Group in London, having previously been co-head of Goldman Sachs’ Real Estate Department and the Lodging and Gaming group and a member of the investment committee of the Whitehall Street Real Estate Fund from 1998 to 2003. John graduated cum laude from Georgetown University and earned his MBA with honours from Columbia University.